More brocante tour planning ...

Welcome to 2014.   Not that you need a welcome from me!  That is probably more for my benefit ... now that the year has well and truly begun and I have hit the ground running in the organisation of the brocante tour.

Thank you all so much for emailing that you are interested in travelling with me to country Normandy for a guided tour of the brocantes and antique stores in this little corner of rural France.  Travelling through picturesque villages, staying in a pretty, rural manor house and finishing with a day in the Paris Puces of St Ouen together.

It's amazing ... from one little blog post pre-Christmas ... from an idea percolating for awhile ...

I love trawling through markets and fairs, but what I love more is sharing the experience with like-minded others.  And I want to share with you the 'learnings' I have gained from having importing french vintage and antique items to Australia ... for several years now ... both the successes and the expensive failures.  So you don't have to learn the same way!

I have had a lovely email from someone interesting in coming along who loves antique fabrics.   Instantly, I have two or three addresses in Paris and in Normandy that spring to mind to share with her.  If there's something that you'd like to specifically find, I can tailor our tour to make sure we include what you are looking for also.

I can also help you deal with the shippers so that your purchases (large or small!) arrive back home - wherever that be in the world.  I have learnt a few foibles Australian customs, in particular, that I can also share with you along the way - which may help with your buying choices!

This week I am working on a document of sorts I will send to you once you register interest.  It will have details of what we will be doing, where we're staying, what the trip includes and the like.

But just to let you know planning so far, our 4 day tour would look something like this:

You would be picked up from the local train station in Normandy, with all directions on how to get the 50 minute train ride from Paris having been pre-arranged.  And we'll be straight off to our first address!  Your accommodation will be at a beautiful little manor house B&B, and all lunches on the road, and dinner at your B&B will be included.  As will your transport and with a guide!

After breakfast each day, we will be going from 9am taking in brocantes and antique dealers throughout the day.  Although we may cover a lot of ground, each day we'll stop for lunch in a lovely country hotel or a busy little village bistrot.  It is France after all ... we couldn't possibly do a hurried lunch!  When you arrive back at 5 or 6pm each day, dinner will be prepared for you at the manor house.

On our last day I will take you to Paris to visit the famous markets in St-Ouen and Clignancourt.  As this area is so vast (and difficult to cover in one day) I can either recommend which areas to look through for something in particular you are after, or we can stroll through my hand-picked favourites.

I am really looking forward to showing you my favourites and to hosting you on this little trip in rural France.  If you would like to register your interest please drop me a line, as there is still room to come along!

Jennifer.
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{all images Vintage Finds}

Brocante Tour Planning: Would you like to stay here?

The planning for next year's tours continue and are coming together so well.

I've found a lovely little chateau for our accommodation - what do you think?  Would you like to retire here each night after we have walked for hours through Antique stores, Brocantes, fairs or markets?

Set on six hectares of parkland, it sleeps 5-6 guests and so will be just our little home away from home to re-group and swap stories about our finds throughout the day!

And each of the bedrooms are so pretty and tastefully decorated.  A dream to rest weary legs after all the kilometres we'll cover throughout the day!

Although it's intended for children - what do you think of this cute little tree house?

This is on the grounds of the chateau, and is extra accommodation for children.  It reminds me of something from 'The Hobbit' ... a little house in the Shire ... with Bilbo Baggins about to walk through the door!  Do you think?

If you like to register interest, please send me an email, and as the tour comes together I will send you more information.

All the best,
Jennifer.
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Adieu Woolloongabba et bonjour Brocante Tours!

Yesterday, and with considerable mixed emotions, I closed my little shop at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre for the summer.

I am planning to re-open in February after the summer school holidays - and all of the chaos that brings to my life!  We are just going to enjoy the next two months - without me regularly sourcing product and visiting the shop.

Some dear friends have rung straight away to ask - so how do I feel now that it is closed?

I think it will only be next Monday when I don't go in to tidy after the weekend's trade, and don't add some new finds and some fresh flowers - that it will really hit home.  Once the routine is broken - then I will know that I have really taken a step in a different direction!

But for now my head is spinning with plans for next year: finalising the online store, also a very fun project doing some pop-up stores around Brisbane in conjunction with other dealers, and yet another project organising a 'Brocante Tour' of Paris and France.

Yes, you have read correctly - after many requests for trips ideas, and asking to come with me - I am going to make it happen in 2014.  I am starting now to organise a little tour of the Paris markets, of some of my favourite stores, of some country brocantes and a few antiques fairs - with lots of delicious french food and wine along the way!

I will also be able to organise shipping for everyone who comes - to make sure all those treasures you would normally not fit in your luggage do arrive back home safe and sound!

In the planning phase now, and so exciting to be sharing a passion of mine, so please email me (click the email button at the top of the blog) if you would like to register interest at this early stage.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Jennifer.
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{all images Vintage Finds}

Ma Cocotte: new restaurant in the Paris markets of St-Ouen

This summer in Paris, my best find has been Ma Cocotte, the fantastic restaurant in la puces de Clignancourt et St-Ouen.  This new place to eat makes a pleasant change to the more traditional restaurant fare in this little corner of Paris.  Annually so many people make a pilgrimage to the most famous of Paris' flea markets, that frankly it was about time that a beautiful and modern Paris restaurant has found it way there!

{image vintage finds}

Created from the ground up by French design royalty Philippe Starck, equally well known as an interior designer and for his industrial design and consumer goods, this restaurant could never fail to please visually.  And it also hits the mark wonderfully for a perfect lunch time meal on a sunny Sunday stroll at the markets!

{image unknown source}

Starck has personally sourced items from the flea markets of St-Ouen - thus - far from creating a modern restaurant at odds with it's surroundings - the restaurant sits so comfortably within the markets of Paul Bert and Serpette you could think it is a newly opened vintage store!

Starck in his restaurant

His inspiration was the dealers' own lunch time meal tables laid out to share with their friends, their laughter and chatter.  He wanted a place of his own to eat on his regular trips to the markets, with his own friends to share laughter and chatter.  From this modest plan, comes the transformation of an industrial building to a 'market must-do'!

{image Sarah Lavoine}

And hopefully you won't be as naive as I am, to the video art installation! On the back wall, against the natural bricks are two artworks framed identically, one photographic, or rather I thought both were - until the image of a person leaning on the glass partition appeared different each time I looked away and then looked back!

{image via Ma Cocotte}

The surprise downstairs in this vintage styling utopia, are that the bathrooms are a sea of utilitarian white tile and 'public bathhouse' styling that have been said to resemble something from Kubrick's 2001!

{image The Wall Street Journal}

Last year when I was there this building at the entrance to the Paul-Bert market could have been mistaken for a cement parking garage.  Starck refers to the building as a 'monopoly house' which now houses this two-story hip restaurant with so much Parisian design cred.

From the vintage furniture selection to the wood and steel panel lift garage doors, a contemporary and deliciously simple menu, arranged to share with friends; this is an exciting new addition to the traditional brasserie fare of St-Ouen.

Hope you take the time to enjoy on your next visit!
Jennifer.
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MA COCOTTE
106, Rue des Rosiers 94400 Saint-Ouen
T: 01 49 51 70 00

OPEN DAILY
12pm to 3pm and 7pm to 11pm Weekdays
8am to 11pm Saturday and Sunday

Off to France ...

Marcigny, France image Vintage Finds

I am off to France very soon for more gorgeous french vintage finds.  I have been putting this trip off for a little while, as we have had a lot on this past year with travel to Africa and Japan, and all sorts of changes in our lives; I wanted to go at a time which was easiest on the whole family - not just good timing for me.  Well, my universe has aligned and this trip is falling into place rather fast.

Will update you more as I book.  But too excited not to share straight away!

Jennifer
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Brocante markets ... Marché aux Puces

When you think of Paris antique or brocante markets, you naturally think of the sprawling and warren-like acres filling the Marché aux Puces (flea markets) of Clignancourt and St-Ouen to the north of Paris.  The prices are quite high here, but there is bargaining to be done, and shipping is very convenient with several shipping companies having their offices in the markets themselves.

Fossicking around out here in the heat can be hard, and I much prefer to come here in the cooler months.  This market is actually a serious of smaller markets that each tend to have a certain style.  Within each of these market streets or buildings there are dealer stalls and shops.  The Marché Vernaison, off rue des Rosiers is what you would think of as a Paris brocante market, where you find yourself winding around small twisting alleyways and hope that you pop out somewhere you recognise!  There is such a varied mix of items in mostly original condition, and is a brocante hunters heaven.

Others of these markets are within larger buildings with the dealers having more usual 'shop spaces' such as in a shopping mall.  Most dealers stock a 'Paris style' mix of industrial and antique furniture and items, however, many dealers can be extremely specific as to what they stock: be it artwork, architectural fragments, vast fireplaces, silverware, vintage clothing per a specific label Paris label, or Hermes handbags.

Steel buckets from a disused water-wheel, converted to a vertical garden of ivy.

Two matching clocks from a church.

Paul Bert is my personal favourite, as it is more open (and a little cooler at the moment!) with some great stall-owners I keep returning to see.   I love going mid-morning on a Friday.  Most dealers are open but the weekend crowds usually haven't arrived yet, so dealers have time for a chat.

It takes days to cover much of this landscape and because the dealers are each so specialised there are sometimes some amazing items and sights to be had!  And to keep up my energy I love to stop for a mid-morning crepe at one of the vendors, or a coffee and snack at Le Voltaire (corner of rue Voltaire and rue des Rosiers).  In beautiful weather,  I aim to stop for lunch and sit outside in the gorgeous weather at Bistrot Le P'tit Landais (96 rue des Rosiers) at the far entrance to the Paul Bert market.  

There is heaps of information on these markets on the internet (you could start at the St Ouen Tourism website), and there are also market guides you can find (for a fee) who are able to steer you straight to what you want!  Happy hunting!

Jennifer.